In this whirlwind of 2020 where nothing is as it seems, the Washington Redskins are changing their name and it may be the best thing they can do.
They are looking to the future.
The #BlackLivesMatter movement has spurred this needed development along. Many of the teams’ sponsors made their feelings clear with their wallets, and the results were pretty immediate.
Although it can be rationally argued that if any team moniker in the country needed to be addressed, it was this one; the pain of a name change for the diehards is nonetheless very real. What I hope we consider is not to let this pendulum swing too hard. It was good to hear that the Braves had resisted the easy path, and I would think that most other clubs around the country would be hard-pressed to make a quick move either. But make no mistake, the Redskins name had to go.
The millennial and Gen Z generation are the ones driving this bus, and that is not a bad thing. Our newest generations are the most enlightened and having a mirror shown to the old ways can be the right kind of awakening for us boomers. This is especially true for soon-to-be Washington football fans. The future is the answer and that future is on social media looking for organizations to follow not deride. Concurrently, the sponsors on the bus out of DC will most likely halt at the Maryland border and U-turn on I-95 now to open their purse strings again.
So, Daniel Snyder has to hope that for every Korean War-era fan that sent a nasty fax this week talking about dumping their season tickets, 10 recent Georgetown grads are in line to buy new mobile seat licenses. I saw a quote referenced this week that 90% of the media is upset that 90% of native americans are not more upset. Well, let’s hope that all the media, native Americans, and young DC fans can get on board the new NFL brand very soon.